Our local Craft and sewing store Spotlight (explination added for non Aussies who read my blog) had Kaisers paper pads marked down to $7.50 each so I decided to pick up two of them one being Chapter one to help me step out of my comfort zone, and the second Needle and thread because I love it so much. That trip also yeilded as always a few really cool bargains, one of which was two packets of 6 paper mache matchboxes for just $1 each.

A couple of days after I got my new stash home I was talking to a friend on the phone and started playing. This is what I created. Adding in a vintage pattern paper flower (cut from Carnation Creations), and a little misted Tissue paper. Their was no purpose to this project it really just was one of those ones that flowed and happened on the spot so to speak.

I started by covering the matchbox and making my flower, then misting the lot with one of my homemade mists. I use my Martha Stewart score board to get the paper to the right size it saves lots of fiddling around and means you can pre score your corners and other fold lines. I have taken to using it in place of my paper trimmer even as I find it easier and love the distressed edge you get.

I then covered the inside bit of the matchbox, misted some tissue paper, and created a template for the top part of the dress from a scrap of cardstock, covered it in the same paper I had used for the sides of the matchbox and scrunched the tissue paper around this to form the skirt. I then added some pearls. Decided where I wanted the dress in the box and viola a wee project completed.

I was so excited to see when Tim Holtz announced his Tattered Floral Challenge. I got the Die off my Sister for Christmas last year.

I had so many ideas go through my mind, another one of my pretty hair accessories, a bouquet, something to wear, the possibilities were only limited by imagination and resources.

As the entries started to pour in. I wanted something truly unique, something no one else would do.

A 4″ tall tattered floral Bear!

Sooo the idea for a new flower bear was born. This one has the fabric hand coloured with Colour Washes (one stream mixed with mowed lawn distress re inker to make it a bit more green and stem/leaf like). The challenge was that I still can not find my mini bear joints and eyes no matter how much I search and search for them. So this bear is string jointed and the eyes are pearls covered in Stream Alcohol ink.

What I love about these bears is the fact that their bodies are like the stem of the flower with their little faces blossoming in the center of the flower.

To get the flower I stamped Tim’s Flutter ATC stamp over the fabric with Archivals Jet black. Then used some colour washes (stream, butterscotch, purple twilight and cranberry they sort of all melded together in the fabric I had) and added some fabric stiffner to the flower. I used one of the other flowers to create the leaves by misting with the leftover mix of stream colour wash and mowed lawn re-inker,

I also misted white pearl cotton with butterscotch to create the bears nose and mouth. The head is also misted in butterscotch.

I used Tim’s paper twine split in two to wrap around the bears legs to give a sort of viney roots look.
here are some more pics of The Tattered Floral Bear.

I love how quirky and funny this is. It was how I left the bear to dry overnight so the bottom leaves would stick and not fall off

and a couple in a wee flowerpot I have with a colour wash next to her to show you just how teeny she really is:

I can’t resist sharing these two sets with you all. They are based on the two placecards my friend liked the most.

I did go a little overboard and created a wedding program cover, favour box, thank you card and of course the place cards. Whilst they were not chosen or needed for this wedding I had fun stretching my talents and trying something new. Bear in mind these are not perfect just rough mock ups (so there are a few spots of ink and such that would have been re done for a finished polished product as such)

So here are the two sets (one has two different versions of the same box which is a small noodle style box though any box could be done as easily)

This project has been almost a month in the making. It all started with an amazing (and I do mean AMAZING see her tribute to Mr Poe here)Toni’s Cupboard of Curiosities

So Toni then set us a Halloween Cyber Crop challenge to create our own spooktacular box/cupboard of curiosities. Unfortunately I do not own any configurations or other such things so Used a Twiddleybitz 6″x 6″ shadow box instead.

sadly I bought two of these some time ago at a craft show and when I went to paint and assemble the second one found out it was missing a vital piece that means I could not put it together or use it. So I had to go back to the drawing board. I had already had decided on what to use the other one for, had it painted and assembled as well. It was originally painted a metallic blue with silver paint sponged over the top to represent clouds (I forgot to take a photo of it this way sorry about that)

here is some of the elements I started with the other bottles and vials are from the Tim Holtz Ideaology range, a Tim Holtz Tree (misted in black soot and covered in Martha Stewart black onyx and white gold glitters), A miniature paper sack (its a die by Memory box), a skull from a halloween garland of skeletons as well as some of the bones, Satin, Grungeboard, glitter, a painting from this amazing artist Jim Smeltz who sells his work in miniature prints here, and the candles are actually hand made by me but more on that later.

here is the Box before it was Alcohol inked and filled (The ‘wallpaper’ is from Primas Firefly 6×6 paper pad)

It was a lot of fun creating my icky vials and bottles of things and such a shame that in the finished product you just do not see the bottom of the ‘blood’ vial. Both it and the bottle that looks like slime exploded out of it are a mix of Alcohol Ink and triple thick mixed and heated (Note please use tweezers or tongs and be careful cause it will bubble up and over it takes a bit of time and a few tries and cool downs to get it all to work) with a heat gun. I love how they turned out.

My bottle of eyes is actually sticky back pearl rhinestones in different sizes stuck together and then put in the bottle and covered with glossy accents. I swirled them all around with a long needle I have for bearmaking I love how it turned out.

Here is a pic of my project Alcohol inked. It was a process that took time and a couple of days to get so I was happy with the effect. I also covered the gargoyles ball with Black Onyx glitter just to give it a bit of a different look to the stone ball.

Here is a pic of what it was like just sort of sussing out where things may or may not end up

this is the right side of the bottom of the Shadow box, as you can see I used the smallest of the Idea-o-logy trees misted it in black soot distress mist (that I made myself) then covered it in black onyx glitter about 2-3 times shaking off the excess and allowing it to dry everytime. It dissappeared to much into the whole blackness of the inside of the box so I added over some white gold glitter as well which sort of looks like a mystical snow (at some point I am hoping to get a wee pentagram in a circle or some such for the top of the tree I just have not seen what I am looking for yet) The bones are from a halloween skeleton I took appart and painted with snow cap paint dabber (I wanted them to have more of a stark look rather than the aged look of the skull). I died some pink satin with Red Pepper Colour Wash and made the Witches hat out of grungeboard, and the cape as well (I will get some pics later with the little spider on the cape it just looks so much better than the cape on its own)

Now to the lefthand side of the bottom of the box.
here is where I used the skull, all my bottles and vials, the Witches broom and also a wee handmade paper bag filled with scolls (the scrolls are made from watercolour paper. Misted with a combination of mists including a pearl one as I wanted them to have a mystical type shimmer but still look really old I have a ton of these left as I went a smidge overboard) The edges are inked in Vintage Photo Distress ink and I misted them again to get it to bleed.

The next thing is a close up of my little candles and I can not believe I actually made these myself from scratch. I melted a beeswax candle I had in a container with my heat gun (would suggest a saucepan and a stove but I was in a hurry and not in need of that much wax) First you run your wick into the melted wax and roll it between your fingers this makes the wick thinner. Then dip the wick into your wax (I actually used cranberry alcohol ink in the wax be warned it does go a bit odd but overnight the colour came out and I love how my candles look now they were very pale and took a while for the colour to show through) Until you are happy with their thickness. I also rolled them in my fingers a bit to get the shape right. At this stage do not worry if they are too long. The best thing about the candelabra is that it sits up on it’s own. I then dipped the bottom of the candles in wax and set them into the candelabra. lit them to get them to be close to even, and used the wee tea light container I had been melting wax in to drip/pour over wax to make the candles look like they had been around for a while dripping. I also needed to light the candles again to get rid of the wax that covered over the wicks. It was an evenings work but I am so stoked with how they turned out. Here is a close up of them.

The finishing touch was the Amazing Art Print (I also got a lovely card, another print and a sticker on the back of the envelope all that can be used in future projects)

And here it is My Witches House Shadow Box (Promise I will get a pic with my glittery black spider tomorrow I just wanted to share this project now that it is done though I can’t promise I will not add to it over time)

and thats it for now 🙂 I had so much fun doing this and though it did not turn out as gruesome as I had wanted it to I would happily tackle another such project with enthusiasm.

This months challenge over at Girlie Grunge (see my sidebar for the link) is to create a gift using Donna Salazar Products.

As my blog readers know I recently purchased the Rose and Carnation Creation dies. I have been playing with making flowers from different types of papers and the Comb I created won not only Artist of the Month on the Girlie Grunge site but also the August Colour Challenge on Jelly Bean Scrappers for which it was created. Rather exciting stuff.

Anyway I bought a wand from our local and rather awesome cheapie shop called Jolly Ollies (they often have a lot of crafty things that are really good quality at very low prices) so I got the plain wooden wand.

I painted it with a combination of paint dabbers, used some impasto over a glimmer screen to create the raised bits. Used some glossy accents over them and sprinkled on the glitter and Made the rose in the center with The Rose Creations Dies and some plain brown paper. Which I again used the paint dabbers on (2 shades of pinks and a smidge of white) before dabbing on a little glue and glittering the flower (I did the same thing for all the flowers in the circlet)

Next I used some ribbon and criss crossed it down the handle of the wand like ballet slippers (how cute would this be for a flower girl) and misted some tulle with Smooch Spritz in Pralines and Cream. Tore it into strips and knotted it around the wand.

To make the circlet I started with some beading wire plated together and then formed into a circle. Built up layers of tulle (also misted with pralines and cream smooch spritz). Wrapping them around to build up a base for the flowers to be attatched to and also to create a little bit of hanging detail at the back. The wrapped around some pearl trim, and ribbon. Attatched the flowers by adding wire to the back of the brads and twisting it around the circlet. The butterflies were created with brown paper and wire (make circles all the same size, attatch two together and cover in brown paper till you have built up around 4-6 layers, let dry then cut around the edges of the wire, paint and glitter) and viola a very sweet gift for one very lucky little girl 🙂

So here it is :

The set together

a close up of the star part of the wand so you can see the detail better